Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Baby Project: Space Mobil

Every baby needs a few things, some you buy, and some you can come up with on your own. We were looking for cool mobils for the crib, and I came across a few neat ones:

Nice Futrama looking ship

Cool little astronaut

These were available over on ETSY, and seemed perfect for the little man... except holy shit find one under $50! I'm pretty open to spending dollar$ and cent$ on the little man, but it seemed like a lot for what we were getting. ARCHITECTURE SKILLS ACTIVATE! With some pretty inexpensive materials from Joannes Fabrics and some creativity juice, I was able to cobble something together:

The materials

Building the felt things that hang from the mobil was actually a lot of fun. They are filled with some pillow stuffing and sewed with thick yarn to give the edges a little more pop.

Ready for hanging!

For the frame, I took some 1/16' x 1/2" x 12" wood for modeling architectural models, and bent, clamped and glued it to a form. This would be done three times for the spider the felt things hang from.

Many clamps

The arm that supported the spider was the same material, although a little more of it.

Bending the support arms

I mocked up the whole thing in the vice to see how it was going to bend with the weight. Ultimately there were two of the support arms holding up the spider and felt things.

Early mock up

And here it is in action. It is all glued and clamped in place, so there aren't any fasteners in the while thing. There are two pieces of a larger, heavier wood block attached to the back for balast, so it can slide along the back rail of the crib easily, and be removed by just pulling it off.

ta da.

I considered how the final loo was going to be for a long time, and decided to simulate that the joints were handled by the same satin ribbon suspending the felt things. They are only for looks, but I liked the softness of it all.

Back connection

And, that is, as they say, all she wrote! Natalie is pretty pleased with the mobil, and that's what really counts. Total cost? About $8. Total awesomeness? Well, you will have to ask the little man after he's the first man on Mars.